Pressure bulkheads are used in vehicles, such as aircraft, to separate a pressurized compartment from an unpressurized compartment. In one typical application, a pressure bulkhead may be mounted within an aircraft fuselage and attached to the outer skin of the aircraft. Such pressure bulkhead mountings typically are complicated and heavily reinforced.
In one example, a pressure bulkhead may include an outer chord assembly composed of a machined Y-chord, failsafe angle, inner chord, and outer break rings. The bulkhead may be backed up with machined stringer end fittings at every stringer location. The stringer end fittings may have to align across a pressure bulkhead and the bulkhead is installed with heavy and complicated machined titanium Y-chord segments, an aluminum inner chord, web, and a separate bolted aluminum failsafe chord. The bulkhead may also contain a ½-inch thick CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) splice strap sandwiched between the titanium Y-chord and the fuselage skin, and the titanium stringer end fittings. The manufacturing process may involve many processes such as drilling, deburring, fay surface sealing, and considerable labor hours to meet all structural requirements due to multiple different materials present in stackup (e.g., CFRP, titanium, aluminum).
Such pressure bulkheads are heavy and costly to produce in order to meet corrosion and fatigue requirements due to differences in material galvanic properties and differing coefficients of thermal expansion. Pressure bulkheads may be heavy due to inefficient loading which require more material to resist deformation or crack initiation.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a compact, lightweight and low-cost pressure bulkhead having relatively simple construction.